2016 Garden Totals

Well, it's 2017. Time to reflect on how our tiny little 1.5' x 17' garden behind our garage did last year. Here are some pics of the timeline (most from my Instagram page):

2/24: planting!


3/1: results 1 week after starting seeds in our south-facing window.


3/9: 3 week update. Got a grow light because our brussel sprouts were
getting too spindly in the window. Peppers still haven't emerged.


3/23: 5 week update.


4/6: 7 week update. Thinned and transplanted (top=before, bottom=after).


4/13: 8 week update. EVERYTHING survived transplanting!
And the zinnias that were planted a week ago have broken through.


4/20: 9 week update. Moved everything out of the basement and
on to the porch. Cilantro and zinnias planted 2 weeks ago (lower left) are up!


4/27: week 10. Back in the basement. Everything shot up with the sun!
Recently planted leaf lettuce in the middle.


5/13: I didn't note when we planted outside, but this was a night where there was a frost threat.


5/25: big ass rhubarb.


6/8: our 2 long skinny beds on top, and some stuff in planters on the patio on the bottom.


6/9: some leaf lettuce from our front porch planter.


6/11: first tomatoes spotted!


6/29: our first peas on our picnic table planter.


7/20: no pics for almost a month! But here was our harvest on July 20:
a zucchini, 3 cukes, 4 cherry tomatoes, and a purple pepper.


8/2: today's harvest.


8/11: Henry next to our tall, skinny yellow pepper plant.
We brought in 2 peppers and some basil for omelettes.


8/19: today's harvest. Everything's looking a little wild!


8/30: today's harvest.


9/15: our cherry tomato plant is still going STRONG!


9/27: Henry's zinnias are really looking good out in the blvd garden!


10/12: freeze coming tonight, so I brought in everything I could.
These were 2 little "potted" brussels spout plants from the backyard.


10/13: I didn't touch our 3 big brussels sprout plants in the garden, and this was
all they did by this time. I was disappointed. This was 100% of our harvest.
(Note the tiny "nubs" above the leaf stalks that SHOULD be big brussels sprouts.)


10/14: made green tomato pie like my Great Grandma Anna used to do!
And I told my boys it was apple (also like she used to do). REALLY good!


10/20: made 2 more green tomato pies, and mailed one to my cousin 1,000 miles away!...


...Here's what it looked like on arrival. See more photos regarding
mailing this pie in this post from November.


11/19: a smart gardener friend told me I should have been pinching off my brussels
sprout leaves (except for those at the top) as they grow. I did that WAY
too late in mid-Oct, but they still produced THIS over the next 5 weeks!


A little fun I had with my cherry tomatoes as seen on my Photo Blog.


Current pic. That's some dead lavender to the far left. My wife wanted to plant it.
I asked for what. She didn't know. So...there it is...

I'm not sure how much you can tell from the pics, but our cherry tomatoes were HUGE this year! They were nearly ping pong ball sized! We were quite happy with how well everything did from seed.

I kept a running tally of what we harvested. Here were the final 2016 numbers:

- Cherry Tomatoes: 274 (and another 130 green ones pre-frost)
- Beefmaster Tomatoes: 77 (and another 31 green ones pre-frost)
- Burpless Cucumbers: 42
- Purple Peppers: 13
- Yellow Peppers: 10
- Orange Peppers: 3
- Zucchinis: 3 (plant died in a storm on 7/20)
- Peas on the picnic table, and lettuce on the front porch.
- Also: basil, cilantro, and dill. (And that lavender plant that's in the last photo that's STILL out there. Oops.)

Some of our green tomatoes ripened, and some we used in pies. We only had to throw out a few. So between our 3 tomato plants (2 Beefmaster and 1 cherry), we harvested over 500 tomatoes and used at least 470!

We have similar plans for 2017: more plants and flowers started from seed in 2 months. More zinnias, fewer brussels sprouts, start basil sooner, but essentially we'll do the same sort of set up this year. "Think spring," everyone!

p.s. Here are related links: here are our 2015 garden totals (and photos), here are our 2014 garden totals (along with pics of leveling our yard and installing the raised beds), and here's that tomato hue scale as a larger file on my Photo Blog.